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You Can Never Have Enough Pickles

I’ve always loved pickles – by themselves straight out of the jar, sliced on sandwiches, diced on hoagies, and diced in egg salad. Most of my life, I enjoyed the Claussen brand of pickles. You can find them in the refrigerated section of your supermarket.

In 2017, I came across Food in Jars, and decided to try my hand at making my own especially since I was growing my own cucumbers. That year, I only grew slicing cucumbers and ended up making maybe 4 pints of pickles. They turned out pretty good, but could use improvement.

Slicing vs. pickling cucumbers.

Last year, I planted one pickling cucumber variety and it made a world of a difference. I harvested over 30 cucumbers from that plant alone, which resulted in 9 pints and 8 quarts of pickles. Some batches were Marissa’s original dill pickle recipe, but other batches I experimented a bit and added jalapeños I grew as well. I also use my own dill weed and dill seed. The only ingredients I by are the vinegar, pickling salt, and other spices that go in.

Of course, some of my jars have been shared with family.

Cucumbers before slicing. Ready for pickling.

This year, I will be planting cucumbers again…I’m thinking 2 slicer and 2 pickling plants. So, there will be a lot of cucumbers again. The plan is to never have to buy pickles from the store again, and maybe sell some jars this year, too.